If you’re thinking about commissioning a website from a professional web designer or even building one yourself, it’s likely that you’ve come across something called WordPress. But what is WordPress and why is it the world's most popular platforms for websites?
In this article we look at what WordPress is and why it could be the right platform for our website. Whether you're building your own website or commissioning one from a professional web designer, you'll want to know the basics about WordPress.
WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS), but what does that mean? A CMS is basically a database connected to a user interface that allows the you to upload and display content on your website.
The original WordPress software was designed to allow individuals to self publish posts and articles on the web. Since then, WordPress has evolved into a platform suitable for a huge range of applications thanks to input from developers and designers who have contributed to the open-source software.
The ability to completely customise the code and it's overall flexibility has led WordPress to absolutely dominates the CMS market taking a massive share.
"WordPress retains a vast majority of the CMS market, with a usage share of 62.8%, followed by Shopify (6.2%) and Wix (3.8%)." - Themeisle.com
There are two versions of WordPress and each offers something different to potential users.
WordPress.com is a hosted version of the WordPress software that provides users with an accessible platform with everything you need to create a website. Users require little to no technical skill or coding knowledge and can actually create their own working website for free.
Users looking for more professional solutions can purchase paid upgrades and add-ons to get custom domain names, themes and plugins.
The WordPress is also available as a download (here) for web designers to host on their own servers. Installing the software on an external server allows web designers a greater degree of flexibility and is often used in conjunction with domain names and hosting packages from third party providers.
Out of the box WordPress allows you to create pages and posts for your website. You can add headings, text, images, audio, video and more to your posts or pages which WordPress will store and organise within a database.
In order to alter the design and layout of your website you'll need to edit the website's "Theme". To add new functionality (for instance you might want to add a contact form) to your website you'll need to install a "Plugin".
Before we get in to themes and plugins it's important to understand the difference between pages and posts in WordPress.
"Pages" are the main website pages a user visits when viewing your website. Examples of common pages include Home, About, Contact etc, which are usually included in the main navigation menu of the website.
WordPress also offers users the opportunity to create "Posts", which were originally intended to be used as simple blog posts. These posts include metadata such as the date of publication and the authors name. Posts can also be categorised which is useful for creating archives of posts about similar topics.
Over time, WordPress developers took the Post format and modified it to create Custom Post Types (CPTs), which are really useful for more complex websites. One example of the implementation of CPTs could be a real estate website where you want to store the properties for sale separately to the main pages of the website. To do this you could create a CPT called "Property" and then list each property as a separate post.
This is really useful for organising your website content and providing regular updates to your users.
Themes affect the overall look and functionality of your WordPress website. WP comes preloaded with a standard theme that allows you to customise the basic look and layout of your website. There are also plenty of third-party providers offering more elaborate free and paid themes, some of which are mostly aesthetic, providing new layout, font and design options that are pre-made and easily selected.
Other third-party themes are more functional and can provide you with almost everything you need for a pretty complicated project. It's easy to find themes built specifically for particular industries such as real estate or hotels that provide almost the pages you need as well as an integrated booking or payment system.
Installing and editing these themes is usually quite straightforward although more complex themes might require more technical skills and can be relatively complicated.
Out of the box, WP is a blank canvas and is quite limited in terms of what it can do. While themes offer layout and aesthetic customisation, the customisation of your website's functionality will be mostly achieved through the use of plugins.
WordPress plugins usually provide a specific functionality (such as adding a contact form as we mentioned above). Lots of these are made by third-party developers and come as a free version as well as the option to upgrade to a pro or paid version for a one-off fee or ongoing subscription.
Plugins unlock the true potential of WP and there is one for almost anything you can think of. Need to add custom code? There’s a plugin for that. Need to shrink the file size of your images to help your pages load faster? There’s a plugin for that. Need to add a contact form to your website? There’s a plugin for that.
New plugins can be found within WP and there’s usually about 10 plugins to choose from for any particular application. WP plugins are mostly made by third-parties so it's really important to check the installation instructions, customer reviews and how often the plugin is updated (you might want to not install a plugin that hasn't been updated since 2017). Luckily all that information is available in the plugin archive.
WooCommerce is a plugin that allows you add e-commerce functionality to your WordPress website.
The core version of WooCommerce allows you to create a shop and add products or manage stock as well as take payments through a number of well known payment gateways such as Stripe and Paypal.
It's also easy to find themes and plugins that work well with WooCommerce and improve your shop's layout customisation options and overall functionality with features such as a booking system.
Although implementing WooCommerce requires no specialised coding knowledge it's advisable to seek assistance when setting up your first online shop as it can be quite overwhelming with the scope of options. At the end of the day, you'll hopefully be taking real world orders and dealing with actual payments from customers who'll be very angry if their order gets messed up or ignored.
WordPress supports a variety of visual builders that allow designers to utilise a drag and drop approach to website layout and design. Visual builders are often more versatile than the options a theme offers and these days include all sorts of implementations including video, animations, slideshows and more.
Using a visual builder such as Divi or Oxygen Builder requires a good knowledge of WP and how it works behind the scenes meaning that it's usually not a good idea for the average user to tackle - leave it your professional WordPress designer.
WordPress themes, plugins and visual builders can go a long way to helping you create the perfect website but in some situations your website may require further customisation.
Developers who work with WordPress regularly can use custom code to achieve an end result that might have been almost impossible with basic themes and plugins. Many developers use custom code in every single WordPress website they make, sometimes out of convenience (it's quicker/easier to add the code rather than use a plugin) or sometimes because they can't find a plugin to do the job in the right way.
Most websites that we make at Jimi Mac involve a combination of themes, plugins, a visual builder and custom code allowing us to achieve almost anything we or our clients can imagine.
WordPress is an open-source software, which means that the WordPress code has been made publicly accessible and worked on and improved by independent developers. The benefits of WP being open source is that it allows anyone to modify and enhance the source code to their specific needs, which is really useful for making unique, creative websites and applications.
It does also mean that there isn't really a centralised "Wordpress" that you can go to for support if your theme or plugin isn't working how you hoped. You might need to seek support from the third-party developer that made the plugin or look in a forum, which can be overwhelming and a bit... long.
However, if you're using WP to build a basic website it's unlikely you'll get too stuck with support and if you're employing a web designer to build the website for you then in most cases they'll be able to find the answers or a work around.
As WordPress itself says on it's about page...
People with a limited tech experience can use it “out of the box”, and more tech-savvy folks can customise it in remarkable ways.
WordPress is a platform that provides infinite options for customisation and modification in the hands of a professional web developer. The fact that WordPress is it's open source means that there's a vibrant community who are constantly adding new options and functionality and lots of it is available for FREE!
If you're planning on building you're own website then WordPress might not be the best option as modern drag & drop builders such as Squarespace offer slicker, more user-friendly solutions to the consumer market.
However if you're looking to commission a web designer then there's a good chance they'll use WordPress due to it's incredible versatility.
